Thursday, January 27, 2011

Oldie, but a goodie... Pear Frangipane

A couple months back I tried to start up baking night again with my Grandma. We started out with a Pear Frangipane. Shawn said it tasted a lot like an apple pie. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Pastry

1 cup - All-Purpose Flour

1/4 tsp - Salt

6 tbsp - Unsalted Butter, cold

2 tbsp - Ice Water

Frangipane

6 tbsp - Butter

2/3 cup - Sugar

3/4 cup - Ground Almonds

2 tsp - All-Purpose Flour

1 tsp - Cornstarch

1 - Egg

1 - Egg White

1 tsp - Vanilla Extract

1 tsp - Almond Extract

3 - Soft, ripe Pears

Directions:

1. To prepare pastry, place flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to blend. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add ice water; pulse until a ball barely forms. Gather into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

3. Roll out dough and place into a 9-inch tart pan with a removeable bottom. Press pastry up the sides and trim the top even with the rim of pan, if needed. Bake 20 minutes. Let cool.

4. To prepare frangipane, place butter and sugar in the bowl of a food processor; process until smooth. Add almonds and blend. Add flour, cornstarch, egg and egg white. Process until smooth. Add vanilla and almond extracts; blend well.

5. Spread frangipane in pastry. Slice each pear half horizontally into 1/2 inch thick slices, but do not seperate. Slide each pear half into frangipane, nestling into mixture. Press, spreading the pear slices slightly. Bake about 40 minutes, until frangipane is puffy and golden. Serves 8.